Fear, uncertainty drive US gun sales

Gun sales across the United States have jumped dramatically in the aftermath of the nation’s most recent mass shooting and a fervent, renewed call for gun control measures that could make it harder to get both weapons and ammunition.“In the United States, the response to mass shootings tends to be in some cases, buying guns – more guns, bigger guns, stronger guns,” said John Hudak, an expert in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit research organization, in an interview with RIA Novosti.

It is a uniquely American response, Hudak said, rooted in a deeply-engrained, emotional attachment many people in this country have to the right of gun ownership that is spelled out in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

The same is not true in many other developed nations, he said, in large part because after mass shootings in Australia, Great Britain and elsewhere, the government has responded immediately.

“In other countries the difference in response is that typically government action is swift and severe, the government steps in and enacts fairly strong gun control legislation,” Hudak said. “That’s not the case in the US.”

Legislation in the US – particularly on an issue as controversial as gun control, with an active, well-funded opponent like the powerful NRA – can take years to wind its way through the system, if ever, he said.

That allows plenty of time, after such events, for avid gun supporters to head to their nearest weapons supply site and begin stockpiling both guns and ammunition.

This time around, they are reacting to a triple whammy in the form of a brutal mass shooting, a second-term president who supports gun control, and a rare, congressional willingness to tackle the thorny issue.

The result is a significant increase in weapon sales that is likely to continue until gun control legislation or other government ban is either enacted or fails to pass.